Steps stick out like a tongue from the pop-eyed façade of a recently renovated 1969 Woodstone home. But is it saying “ah” or “nyah-nyah?” The elevated entry sits between matching front-loader garages supporting twin window bays. Fully paved, the front “yard” meets the street’s cul-de-sac in the Memorial-area neighborhood, which is located west of Gessner Rd. and north of Briar Forest Dr. Listed a week ago, the property is asking $1.149 million. Following a splitsville floor plan, the home’s living and sleeping areas form parallel universes on both levels.

The asking price for the Heights Theater on bustling 19th St. in Houston Heights in today’s live-or-work listing is $1.9 million. The owners last toe-tested the reel deal in 2008, at $1.3 million. In the interim, surrounding neighborhoods have tipped even more hip. Though the future of the historic (but not protected) property is up for grabs, its past scrolls like an old film roll, with scenes of early prosperity, seedy decline, suspected arson, and restoration.

The exterior’s revamp earned the current owners a Good Brick Award 20-ish years ago. The interior, a shell space since its near destruction by fire in 1969, has been used for live theater, retail, events, and galleries. In the former lobby’s crossroads sits an original projector (top), a sculpture standing as both a testament and witness to passing eras.

It’s a grand view of Upper Galveston Bay from a lattice-wrapped century-old Victorian home in Grandview. The bayfront stretch of Morgan’s Point in La Porte was an early 20th Century enclave of upper-crust summer residences. The 1896 home sits near the water end of the lot, which is nearly an acre; 1886 quarters anchor the gated entry off the lone roadway serving a string of shoreline-hugging properties, which includes the 1928 Ross Sterling mansion and its mega-sized, treeless lot. This property, however, has plenty of plantings. County tax records indicate the spread has been in the same family since at least the early (19)80s. The asking price for the listing, which went up earlier this month, is $1.2 million.

Until neighboring homes now under construction weigh in, the largest home — by just a couple sq. ft. — on its Museum District block in Jandor Gardens is a custom 2006 contemporary by Stern & Bucek. The home stacks up on one side of a wide, slightly terraced, slightly dog-legged lot. The property avoids pesky back neighbors entirely — the lawn, landscaping, and pristine pool extend to the street behind. Earlier this week, the listing appeared on the market with a $3.95 million price tag.

Incorporated as a city in 1959, Sugar Land was still Imperial Sugar’s company-owned town when the original part of this expanded, updated 1940 home went up east of Main St. in “the Hill” neighborhood of Old Sugar Land (loosely defined as north side of U.S. 90). Listed earlier this week with a $349,900 asking price, the property sports a wraparound side porc (above) that faces a Texas Historic Landmark across the tree-lined street: Sugar Land Auditorium, formerly Lakeview Auditorium, is the last remaining building of the original 11-structure campus of Sugar Land ISD District 17.

Quiet zone status applies not to the perky exterior’s bold paint combo but to the railroad tracks running behind this restored 1898 Victorian east of Houston Ave. and just south of Winter St. in the First Ward. The corner-lot property, which is also near the Heights bike trail, has been on the market for a month, during which the price has increased by $10K — to $468,000.

A semi-prairie style property pitched as an “executive home” in The Woodlands’ Mirror Ridge section of Indian Spring dresses its kitchen cabinetry in pinstripes (top). The 2001 home’s relisting today downsizes the asking price to $699,900 from the previous listing’s $712,000, which had been in effect for a month.

Several of the rooms make the most of their position off a semi-private courtyard that’s located on one side of the footprint.

When the listing of an expansive 2002 property in Spring says it has an “oversized, attached” garage, believe it. In this case, it’s referring to the airplane hangar in back (top). The mixed-use building’s informal first level features residential floorspace with aviation storage just steps away. The more formal living space upstairs has a bird’s-eye view of the inventory (top). Runway access to David Wayne Hooks Memorial Airport is immediately adjacent to the property, which is located, fittingly, off Steubner-Airline Rd. and north of Spring-Cypress Rd. Since February, a re-listing has held to a steady course pointed toward $3.5 million, the asking price set in a November-to-January initial sortie.

Ferns grace the interior wallcoverings (top) as well as the exterior landscaping of this 1961 custom mod in Marilyn Estates. Listed at $509K, the home presents a gated and landscaped courtyard entry (above) off the cul-de-sac of a street located a block south of Brays Bayou and west of Chimney Rock Rd. The walkway to the doubled front door is covered, but the adjacent open garden with fountain and sculpture provides a private outdoor space for rooms that face it on 3 sides of the home’s U-shaped floor plan:

Craggy stonework and red roof tiles rock a rustic Euro farmhouse vibe in Hedwig Village at a 2011 custom home by and for the builder behind Cunningham Development (and the Andalusian-inspired Cáceres enclave community in the Rice Military area). The listing, posted yesterday, has a $3.895 million asking price, but doesn’t include too many peeks at (or around) the property. It’s just north of Beinhorn Rd., between Piney Point Rd. and Voss Rd., in a neighborhood with several newer built homes mixing in with the remaining mid-fifties inventory.

In Midtown, a 2003 townhome in one of the neighborhood’s pioneer gated-off blocks appears to be a step up — actually, several steps up, particularly from the dual entry threads of treads (top). Interior staircases lead to levels 3 and 4. The property last changed hands in 2005, at $260K, and asks $350K in the listing posted last week. Located at the north end of Midtown, the home faces west (and east) a block or 2 south of the Pierce Elevated. Access to Hwy. 288 on the cross street is a straight shot east.

One of the Inwood Forest properties near the neighborhood’s former golf course and clubhouse seems to have split personality. A stately late seventies contemporary — tiers of windows in a variety of sizes and groupings finish out an assortment of bump-outs (and bump-ups) — opts for some How the West Was Fun flourishes inside (top). The property, located on Antoine Dr. north of W. Little York, faces a side street but takes its address from the thoroughfare. In its relisting over the weekend, the 1979 custom home’s asking price is set at $214K. A previous listing by the same agent had sought $242K in June 2014, with a reduction to $222K in August.